WORKING WITH THE MEDIA A GUIDE FOR ANTI-RACIST CAMPAIGNERS AND REFUGEE RIGHTS ACTIVISTS

WORKING WITH A GUIDE FOR ANTI-RACIST REFUGEE RIGHTS ACTIVISTS GUIDE TO WORKING WITH THE MEDIA – INSTITUTE OF RACE RELATIONS p2 INTRODUCTION Dealing with the media can be daunting. Many community activists, campaigners and workers in community organisations are put off, either because of previous bad experiences or because Contents 3 Drawing up and disseminating a press release of a perception that journalists will distort stories to fit their own agendas and interests – a perception that is borne out by the coverage we see and read every day, particularly in relation to race and refugee issues. Yet working with the media is essential to any successful campaigning work or community activism. This guide aims to assist those in anti-racist and refugee rights campaigns to work with the media in a confident, strategic and effective way. The guidance is based on our own experience and on advice and documents supplied by a variety of other organisations and individuals. In particular, we have drawn heavily on materials supplied by the MediaWise Trust (formerly PressWise Trust), the Refugee Media Group in Cardiff, the Big Lottery Fund, the Commission for Racial Equality, Citizens’ Advice Bureau, George Monbiot, Marnie Summerfield and Eric Allison. 5 Contacting the media and building a relationship 6 Making comments and managing interviews 9 Managing photos 10 Legal issues 12 Seeking redress 15 Press Complaints Commission code of practice 19 Reporting asylum and refugee issues We welcome your feedback and comments on this guide. Please email us at news@irr.org.uk. While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy and appropriateness of material in this guide, we cannot accept liability for any consequential damages whatsoever arising out of its use. Published by the Institute of Race Relations, October 2005. GUIDE TO WORKING WITH THE MEDIA – INSTITUTE OF RACE RELATIONS p3 DISSEMINATING A PRESS RELEASE Journalists are often pushed for time. The key to drawing up an effective press release is to make their lives easier by minimising the amount of work they have to do to turn your press release into a story. 1 The main press release should not consist of more than one or two sheets of A4 paper and should be word-processed and double-spaced. It should be clearly marked at the top with the words ‘Press Release’ or ‘News Release’. racism, violence or other unprofessional conduct, about individuals who could be identified – unless you have water-tight evidence (see page 10 on legal issues). 8 Make sure that the main release includes clear contact names and phone numbers (including mobiles, if possible, for out of hours). 9 Any additional information, particularly of a background nature to the issue, e.g. 2 Use your organisation’s headed paper or logo, if you have one, give a complete date and an ‘embargo’ time, if appropriate (e.g. 00.01 16 August 2004). By putting an ‘embargo’ time, you are telling journalists not to publish the story any earlier than the time specified. 3 Think of an explanatory (rather than a witty or clever) headline for the story of not more than eight words – which could grab the attention of a journalist. 4 The opening paragraph is crucial and should contain the most important and interesting facts. 5 Subsequent paragraphs (of two or three sentences only) should be in order of priority. It is useful to any story if you can include direct quotes from those involved. 6 Ensure that the first and second paragraphs have covered the following: Who, Why, What, Where and When. 7 Language: try not to use abbreviations, initials or slang terms which may not be understood by someone outside your field of work. Be careful to sound authoritative rather than emotive. You should also avoid making specific allegations, e.g. about legislation which is relevant, previous statements from politicians, other similar cases, statistics which are available and information about your own organisation – should be provided on a separate sheet headed ‘Notes for editors’. This need not be double-spaced but each point should be made in a separate, numbered paragraph (which makes them easier to digest). Again, it should not run to over one A4 sheet. 10 If you are having an event where individuals will be available for interview or will be making public statements, make this clear (journalists are always looking to ‘humanise’ their stories, this is an important way of the pulling them in). 11 Send your release out as widely as possible using either fax or email (hopefully your technology should allow you to do this automatically in a ‘mass’ way). Wherever possible send it to a named journalist rather than just to the ‘News Desk’. (Sending out a release widely does not mean sending it to a journalist or a paper which you know has a reputation for being hostile. To alert those who are already unsympathetic to your ‘cause’ to a new dimension of your work, could invite yet more hostile coverage.) GUIDE TO WORKING WITH THE MEDIA – INSTITUTE OF RACE RELATIONS p4 12 The timing of the release depends on what you are press-releasing. A report, a press conference or an event might require different timings. It might be a good idea to flag up an event two weeks before and then follow it up with another release two days before it takes place. Two days is also standard before the release of a report or a press conference. 13 You should also follow up these releases with a phone call to specific journalists who you think will be interested. You should not appear to be pestering them but, rather, ensuring that they have received something that you think will be of particular interest to them. You might also add when on the phone an item of information about the event. Example press release GUIDE TO WORKING WITH THE MEDIA – INSTITUTE OF RACE RELATIONS p5 AND BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP 1 Make one person in your organisation responsible for dealing with the media. Ideally, this person should be well-informed about your organisation and about your policy area, have good communications skills and be available within office hours and contactable outside them. b) news programmes on national, regional and local radio and television, specialist programmes within radio and TV; c) email mailing lists, newsletters and websites in your and allied fields; 2 Make it the responsibility of the ‘press officer’ to draw up a database of all media contacts. This should include details of all media people who contact the organisation plus the names and details of journalists whom you read, hear or see covering issues/cases well or sympathetically in the area of your work. You should keep a note of email addresses, fax and phone numbers for individuals, the paper/programme they work for and the frequency of production and deadlines. (Note, most journalists expect to receive written text by email or fax and not conventional mail.) It is important to keep the list/database up to date, noting when new journalists join or when a good journalist moves elsewhere. If you can establish a computerised data-base, from which you can make ‘mass’ emails or faxes, it will save an inordinate amount of time in the future. 3 Such a database has to be constructed in terms of your locale, sector and field of work but it might be useful to note just how wide the database can be. It could include contacts (ie news editors, home affairs specialists, etc.) on: d) freelance writers and columnists. 4 Your ‘press officer’ may be able to be proactive about forming relationships with key journalists, particularly on national and local papers. This might involve contacting the paper and introducing themselves and the organisation to the journalist concerned, asking what kinds of stories are of interest to the paper and the individual, finding out what stories they are working on and offering to send in material, making sure to send the person the organisation’s annual report, etc. The press officer could also create or suggest a story once a relationship has been built up. Such a relationship is not a one-off, but should be sustained, even when it does not appear immediately to have a ‘pay-off’ for your organisation. 5 Local media are often more responsive than national media because they are more ‘accountable’ to local communities and more careful about their coverage. And they are more likely to be interested in local human interest stories. 6 When you have a good news story, it is perfectly acceptable to approach any a) national dailies, national Sunday papers, regional papers, local papers, free papers, magazines of particular interest groups (e.g. refugees, housing, children’s rights etc.), the Black and Minority Ethnic press, community or political magazines or papers; number of your media contacts. But be fair and let them know that others have been approached. If you do negotiate ‘an exclusive’, keep it exclusive to show you can be trusted in the future. ... - tailieumienphi.vn